In This Issue:

Perspectives on DMT Research ­ Chapter from DMT: The Spirit Molecule
Rick Strassman, M.D.
In this chapter from his book-in-progress, Strassman discusses the historical, pharmacological and clinical contexts within which future DMT research questions can be formulated.

A Pharmacological Study of Ayahuasca in Healthy Volunteers
Jordi Riba and Manel J. Barbanoj, M.D., Ph.D.
This study aims to be the first controlled pharmacological study of ayahuasca in humans undertaken in a Western country and with local volunteers who are familiar with its consumption.

Religions of the Twice-Born:
Northwest Amazonian Ayahuasca Shamanism and Near-Death Experience
Marcus Lumby
In cooperation with the international body of medical doctors, psychologists and anthropologists presently conducting collaborative ethnomedical research, this project will afford a new anthropological explanatory perspective on near-death experience (NDE).

Ayahuasca in Europe
Alberto Groisman
In the end of the 1980s, the Brazilian cults of ayahuasca arrived in Europe. These groups use ayahuasca in a ritual and religious context, with an influence from Amazonian culture, shamanism, esoteric Christianity and Afro-Brazilian cults.

Ideas and Reflections Associated with Ayahuasca Visions
Benny Shanon, Ph.D.
Ayahuasca is famous for the visions it generates. The author has made the case for a systematic study of the contents of these visions and presented data pertaining to them.

Ayahuasca and Cancer: One Man's Experience
Donald M. Topping, Ph.D.
After being diagnosed with cancer of the liver, the author was advised by oncologists that his chances of survival were slim. He went to ayahuasca for a second opinion.

Jurema Ritual in Northern Brazil
Yatra-W.M. da Silveira Barbosa
Jurema rituals in Northern Brazil were thought to be extinct, but researchers are looking into contemporary use of vinho da jurema, an inebriating drink made from the root bark of Mimosa hostilis and other Mimosa varieties.

The Hoasca Project in the Scientific Literature
Science now has the basic corpus of data needed to ask further questions regarding the pharmacological actions, the toxicities and possible dangers, and the considerable potential ayahuasca has to heal the human mind, body and spirit.

Conversation with Dr. Albert Hofmann
Charles S. Grob, M.D.
Dr. Charles Grob speaks with Dr. Albert Hofmann about his views on psychedelic drugs. Is it possible to re-establish psychedelic research as a respectable scientific field? What implications do psychedelic drugs have for the field of psychiatry?

Heffter Research Institute Update
David Nichols, Ph.D.

The Hofmann Report
Myron Stolaroff, M.S.

The Secret Chief: A Review and Commentary
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.

Listening into the Heart of Things: The Awakening of Love
Book by Samuel Widmer
Reviewed by Gary Bravo, M.D.

The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness
Book by Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.
Reviewed by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. and Christopher Ryan

Non-Anglo Entheography: Mini-Reviews of Non-English Publications, III
Jonathan Ott

The Literature of Psychedelics
Bob Wallace

Preface to the New Edition of Shivitti: A Vision
Claudio Naranjo, M.D.
This important and inspiring book, the memoir of a concentration camp survivor who was successfully treated in the Seventies with a therapy involving doses of LSD, is once again in print.

Tucson III Conference: Towards a Science of Consciousness
Conference review by Timothy Butcher and Alex Gamma
With future Tucson conferences, there is hope that the psychedelic community will involve itself with the serious study of consciousness and that the scientific community will then have more exposure to and understanding of psychedelic-related principles.

Third International Conference on Entheogens and Modified States of Consciousness
Conference review by Christopher Ryan

Ayahuasca Tourism in South America
John N. Grunwell
Within the last fifteen years or so, a grassroots ayahuasca tourism has sprung up, with outposts all over Amazonia. These enterprises are the focus of this article.

Readers' Forum

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